Thursday, March 24, 2011
Sports World |
| Gitano to leave Botti after World Cup bid Posted: 24 Mar 2011 09:26 AM PDT Only days before the world's richest race, the $10 million Dubai World Cup, Newmarket-based trainer Marco Botti has learned that his stable star Gitano Hernando has been sold by owners Team Valour International & Gary Barker for an estimated $4 million, writes Elliot Slater. The deal provides that the colt will remain under Botti's care until immediately after the World Cup race after which he will be transferred to the care of South African handler Herman brown, a trainer who also has a base in Dubai. The new owner of the five-year-old son of Hernando is none other than Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, a man who has long had a passion for racing and has invested significant sums of money in bloodstock in recent years. Always invests in UK and Irish horse racing tips. Gitano Hernando has been the horse to put Botti's name in lights flying the flag for the Italian-born handler at major meetings across the globe over the last two seasons. A runner-up in Chester's Group 3 Dee Stakes in 2009, the chestnut colt then stunned US racegoers when landing the Grade 1 Goodwood stakes at Santa Anita in October of that year beating local favourite Colonel John by a neck in the nine furlong contest. After winning Lingfield's Winter Derby Trial in February of last year Gitano Hernando made his first attempt on the Dubai World Cup and was surprisingly sent off favourite after significant market support, running well but eventually finishing a two-length sixth in a tight finish behind French/Brazilian raider Gloria de Campeao as guessed by horse racing tips. Returning to action after a summer break at Dundalk in Ireland last October, Botti's charge win the Group 3 Diamond Stakes and his since run three times in Meydan in preparation for this Saturday's World Cup, most recently finishing a very promising third to Henry Cecil's twice Over in the Group2 Makhtoum challenge. Twice Over is currently the 9/4 favourite to land Saturday's Dubai World Cup, whilst Gitano Hernando is generally available at 12/1.  |
| Posted: 24 Mar 2011 03:56 AM PDT "National Velvet" was originally a novel by British author and playwright Enid Bagnold (1889-1981), whose great-granddaughter is Samantha Cameron, wife of the UK's current Prime Minister David Cameron. First published in 1935, National Velvet tells the story of a young girl, Velvet Brown from a small village in Sussex on the south coast of England, who becomes obsessed with winning the Grand National. But perhaps the film version - created nine years after the novel was published - is what really made the story famous, and is familiar to millions of Grand National horse racing enthusiasts the world over. The film was instrumental in helping to launch the career of the late Elizabeth Taylor – then just 12 years old – who played the role of Velvet Brown, and a young Angela Lansbury as one of her two older sisters. In the film version, Velvet (along with Mi Taylor played by Mickey Rooney) sees "The Pie" (in the novel, the horse was a black and white piebald) running loose in a field and jumping a wall equivalent to Becher's Brook – according to Mi, a former jockey. Velvet wins The Pie in a raffle and she and Mi Taylor train him all through the winter thinking continually about winning the great race – whose entry is paid for by Velvet's Mother's prize money for swimming the English Channel years before when she was trained by Mi's father. The night before the National, Velvet meets The Pie's intended Russian jockey, "Tasky", immediately senses he doesn't truly believe in The Pie, and dismisses him on the spot. The next day, posing as Tasky after her hair has been shorn by Mi Taylor, Velvet goes on to win the Grand National against all the odds, but falls off the horse just after the finishing line and is already disqualified before being discovered as an adolescent female and becoming a national heroine. It's a good job they didn't have inplay betting in those days, as fictional punters would have been most annoyed! A tall tale perhaps, but National Velvet certainly played its part in helping to create the international legend that is The Grand National steeplechase.  |
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